The Big Blog
A photo essay from Narbonne
We have had a few days in Narbonne and liked it a lot, seems like a nice place to live.Well that's all from France, the Pyrenees are beckoning.
19 July 2019
Rich pickings in the Cevennes
We've enjoyed a fabulous few days in the Cevennes region of southern France. Situated on the Massif Central the region is a wilderness area of mountains, plateaus, deep river gorges, ancient hilltop villages and wonderful wildlife. Needless to say it has extraordinarily...
15 July 2019
One day in France - The last two tickets to the Rollingstones
Annie joining the locals queueing at the Boulangerie this morningGenerally the French don't seem to be in to queueing much, but there appears to be one exception, baguettes! They regularly queue in bakeries and down the street in a very orderly manner. I've...
14 July 2019
From sulphur to sugarcane
It's not very far from sulfur to sugar caneNow if you catch my eye and it seems to run down your legIt's like striking a match pretty hard upon a powder keg These were the words of the song going round and round in my head as we road through the Champagne...
12 July 2019
Trees - now that's an Oak
Our 2019 motorcycle tour also includes a few detours to see trees, this one, in the little hamlet of Liernu in Belgium, was definitely worth it. This ancient oak of possibly 1000 years is absolutely beautiful. It has two sister oaks, The Chapel Oak of France...
8 July 2019
No Fries in Friesland?
We left Amsterdam and headed toward motorcycle mecca, the historic Assen TT motor racing circuit. It was stiflingly hot again and we were glad to get to our accommodation, where an electronic sign above a shop opposite suggested 42 degrees! It was definitely...
5 July 2019
Amsterdam
Amsterdam, one of the worlds great cities, presumably because it was built and is inhabited by lots of smart Dutch people, and they are smart too, and they all appear to be bilingual! Perhaps that's why so many tourists come to visit, it's too easy? There's...
3 July 2019
The Last Post First
As you can see the bike we have bought is red and British, let’s hope red doesn’t equate to embarrassing moments. Our first week on the road has gone relatively smoothly, adjusting once again to a tiny “suitcase” in which we still seem to be able to manage...
30 June 2019
We're doing it again!
Well we have decided to do it again, ride around Europe on a motorcycle for a few months. Before we head off I thought I would remind you of our earlier 2009 and 2013 exploits, two 15,000km tours of the continent and the UK two up on a motorcycle, a different...
4 June 2019
The skull cap
My interest in trees extends to parts of trees, flowers, bark, branches, fruits, pods, and in the case of gum trees, flower caps. When the flowers open the caps are shed and fall to ground. The caps themselves vary in size from several centimetres across to...
9 April 2019